OMM Newsroom
The United States and China should cooperate to manage the risks of artificial intelligence despite their differences over the technology, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Tuesday at an address to the National Committee on US-China Relations in New York. Bessent said Washington wants to build “constructive relations based on balance and reciprocity” with Beijing, AnewZ reports.
Bessent will travel to China next week. US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are set to meet for the third time this year. The talks are planned for November 18-19 in Shenzhen, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders’ summit.
According to Bessent, the meeting will launch a new bilateral dialogue on “superintelligence,” an approach favored by the Trump administration for advanced AI. The aim is to prevent shared risks and “avoid misunderstandings between our two systems.”
“We will also share best practices on evaluating and testing advanced models before their release, as well as preserving the essential role of human judgment in managing this technology,” Bessent said.
He added that the sides had agreed to establish a direct communications channel to alert each other to serious AI incidents. Trump and Xi agreed on a warning system when they met at the White House in September. At the time, Trump said he was hesitant to impose further restrictions because he wanted the United States to maintain its leadership in the field.
“At the same time, we should have no illusions about the differences between the United States and China. Our interests will not always align,” Bessent said.
Bessent did not address the controversy surrounding Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang. The company’s board is investigating Huang following allegations that he had a relationship with a businesswoman whom US security services suspect of working for Chinese intelligence, The New York Times reported.
China’s Foreign Ministry has called the espionage allegations “unfounded” and “slanderous.” Nvidia said its board had no reason to believe national security or company secrets had been compromised.
Huang attended Trump-Xi meetings in Beijing in May and Washington in September. It is unclear whether he will accompany Trump on his trip to Shenzhen.
Bessent also discussed trade measures agreed at two previous summits. They include a “Board of Trade” that would set reciprocal tariff reductions on $30 billion worth of non-sensitive goods in each direction, as well as China’s commitment to buy agricultural products from the United States.
According to Bessent, a similar mechanism, called the “Investment Board,” will address issues such as US companies’ access to the Chinese market.
He acknowledged that the US trade deficit with China remains a point of disagreement. However, he stressed that Washington’s goal is to reduce risks, not decouple from trade with Beijing.
A fourth meeting between Trump and Xi is expected in December at the G20 summit, which the United States will host in Miami.
